CAAR Blog

What goes on in Albemarle, sometimes migrates to other counties. Other counties tend to take advantage of the effort and money that Albemarle puts into an item and then barrows it. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen all the time. I have written about Albemarle’s anti-business/development process and attitude before. It is nothing new, but fortunately for residents in other counties in central Virginia, most other local governments embrace a reasonable process and attitude toward an important part of the local tax base.

I recently read a recap of the Fluvanna Supervisor’s meeting on the Free Enterprise Forum’s Blog and was very pleased to see that Fluvanna was adopting a more transparent (a.k.a., fair, honest, and open) process of considering land use issues. I particularly like the part about staff NOT making a recommendation. The standard procedure in Albemarle is for staff to give a thumbs up or down to a project when they present it to the Planning Commission and that needs to stop for the reasons cited in Fluvanna.

Here is a summary:

Land Use Issues

Planning Director Darren Coffey outlined some new land use application procedures that the supervisors endorsed. To make the process more transparent, and insulated from charges of favoritism, Mr. Coffey announced the following:

• Developers will now participate in a pre-application meeting to have a better understanding of the process and hopefully submit a higher quality application;

• There will be a neighborhood meeting for rezoning applications and special use permits prior to the Technical Review Committee meeting. This would provide for earlier citizen input in the process and more information for both the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors; and,

• The planning staff no longer will make a recommendation when submitting its staff report. Coffey stated that it was important for the staff to remain credible and neutral throughout the process, and that the staff should not make policy recommendations but rather “accurately and fairly evaluate each application that is submitted�.